Xerox Invents “Self-erasing” Paper

Xerox is looking to venture outside the office world you’ve associated it with. Seems now it’s aiming to make tree-hugging hippies smile with erasable paper. The paper automatically clears itself after a 24-hour waiting period and can then be used again and again, up to 100 times. It may not be a zero-watt monitor, but hey, it beats sitting there with an eraser for ten minutes.

How does it work? Glad you asked:

The paper contains specially coded molecules that create a print after being exposed to ultraviolet light emitted from a thin bar in a printer. The molecule readjusts itself within 24 hours to its original form to delete the print, or heat can readjust the molecule instantly. Xerox developed the molecule.

The ultraviolet bar itself is very small, so it can be used in mobile printers, Shrader said. The technology could also be useful for network printing.

Doesn’t sound easy. What do you think? Will companies and consumers give in to this new kind of paper when it becomes mainstream? Is it cost effective? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

One comment

Now that is cool. But I wonder how much the ink and paper will cost you? Maybe its not so cost effective even though it may be green effective. Which begs the question, why does green technology have to cost so much?